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NATIVE LIFE IN TRAVANCORE is a book written by The REV. SAMUEL MATEER, F.L.S. of the London Missionary Society.

Though this book focuses on the actual social realities of the Travancore kingdom during the 1800s, what has been portrayed can literally reflect the social scene in the various locations of the South Asian Subcontinent of those times.

The various populations arranged in a vertical hierarchical social order with each of them suppressing those populations that came below them. And at the same time extending homage and respect to those who came above them.

The plight of the bound-to-the-soil slaves is a very revealing one, in that it can very easily be seen that that the oft-mentioned black slavery in the USA was not at all any kind of slavery at all, in comparison and actuality.

With the advent of the English rule in the neighbouring location of Madras Presidency, Travancore slowly came under pressure to remove the social shackles that had been there for centuries. The efforts for this from all quarters including the Missionaries of the London Missionary Society, the Travancore Royal family and the English East India Company and later of the British Crown administration of the Presidencies can all be seen mentioned or hinted at.

In retrospection, the grand gullibility and stupidity of the English Company rule can also be pondered upon. In that the English rule took up the issue of improving the lot of ungrateful populations, which were all mentally tied up to the irascible codes of native feudal languages.

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